Oh, go ahead--blame the duck

I am making a duck, I think, & thinking about acquiring a new computer.

I am not actually making a duck--only other ducks can do that--so much as cooking a duck. The I think part stems from the fact that the duck has been in the oven (my first use of the oven here!) for far longer than the internet says a duck must be in the oven, & yet it seems not done to me. Perhaps my oven is not calibrated correctly. Perhaps my duck is a mutant, made not by other ducks, but by some strange process that renders it heat-resistant. (Okay, so the spellcheck just flagged the word renders--& the word okay--& the word spellcheck. I must be living in an alternate universe where spellcheck & ducks do not operate as the planet I was on earlier.)

I am thinking about acquiring a new computer because this one is making me a little crazy. Now I don't mind being a little crazy, so much, but this one keeps turning my wireless radio off & saying windows can't configure the internet connection & popping up annoying little earthlink dial-up windows--all of which prevents me from sending you pictures of my thumb with fast moving heart-shaped lavosh cracker & daisy, & mutant duck updates. (The photo was taken at Aroma's, in Zumbrota, Minnesota, before a Michael Monroe concert at the Crossings Gallery.) (Okay, so I must admit it was a fast-moving camera rather than a fast-moving cracker & daisy.)

Anyway, I am not getting a new computer tonight, so if you don't get this message, or if the picture is missing, you can blame the old computer. Or me. Or anyone you want to blame. Except the duck. Do not blame the duck.



You know what this is? this is part of the space that the picture was supposed to be in. I give up. The computer keeps resetting & doing stupid stuff while it's supposed to be looking for the picture. So, no picture. & man, it was really cool, too. I hope the post posts.



Ooh! I almost forgot: I bought a world map today at a little map store in Black Mountain, which was supposed to have closed 15 minutes before I arrived but did not in fact do so. It's a Buckminster Fuller projection--also known as the Dymaxion projection--& is way cool. I've been wanting one. It doesn't distort the shapes or sizes of the continents.

Blog alternative:
107. Look at a map of the world--Dymaxion, if you can get it--& pick a spot to shower some extra-special attention on.

Unlawful conduct subject

I was all set to write my blog & then I couldn't think of anything to blog about & then I thought I'd do a photo instead & then I started looking at my photos &--well, this is just to tell you I'm not really blogging today.

Grin.

& I couldn't really decide which picture to put in, so ignore this one, from July 2006 in Racine, Wisconsin.

That might be about it.

If I was going to put a quote from The Art Spirit, it would be Real students go out of the beaten paths, whether beaten by themselves or by others, and have adventures with the unknown. However, since I'm not really blogging I won't do that.

& Blog alternative 106. would be
106. Pick something not to do & don't do it.

Techno-damsel posts photograph--no one is injured

Hello from December!

It's officially winter now, according to Laurel. December, January & February are winter. March, April & May are spring. June, July, August--summer. I'll let you guess what the fall months are. Anyway, happy winter from Winter.

The weather is beautiful, crisp & sunny with some clouds in the forecast. I hope it rains. The mountains would enjoy sipping some precip.

My friend Bill has informed me that it is time to start adding photos to the blog. (You remember Bill--he's the one who informed me I was about to start blogging.) He told me it was easy as pie & he'd tell me how. I have decided not to techno-damsel. I'm about to try doing it myself.


Oh! It worked. (Don't sound so surprised, goddess previously known as techno-damsel.) That is a self-portrait reflection from a boat on Lake Titicaca in 2004, early February.

I was thinking of Peru today, because I am sponsoring a Peruvian boy's education--I met him in the jungle there in 2004; he was 5, & already working at a 2nd grade level--& I just got a little update from Dolly, who led our tour down there & set up the sponsorship program. So here's to dear, brilliant Jefferson.

Now a quote from The Art Spirit:

The best art the world has ever had is but the impress left by men who have thought less of making great art than of living full and completely with all their faculties in the enjoyment of full play. From these the result is inevitable.

Blog alternative:
105. Look at some photographs you took--or some that were taken of you.

Revenge of the imaginary executive assistant

Cool. 11 posts in the 11th month. Maybe I'll do 12 in December. January's looking grim though. Grin.

I write you from the semi-satiated space between 2 cream cheese bagel halves. (As in, I have eaten the first half.) Here in this space there is some relief from hunger, but it is not good for ones clothing to stand too close to the event horizon of the second half, which is sucking me inexorably into the cream-cheesy goodness. Aaaah, my new plum organic cotton hooded wrap jacket, noooooo!

I must eat my way out of this chasm before I can finish this post. One moment. Talk amongst yourcyberselves.





Much better. You ever have one of those days when you realize the only thing you've eaten is a piece of toast with butter & pear preserves & a couple clementines? I don't know how much of the day I spent on the phone, but it was a fair percentage. The good news is that it was all fun & pleasant & I now have travel plans for the holidays & numerous persons who would be interested in said plans notified. Montana, via Minnesota. I thought I had everything set up to just fly to Billings with my Capital One miles, because I have more than enough. Except there's also a $ restriction, as in up to $500, which doesn't even come close to covering Asheville to Billings, Montana, during the holiday season. So I'll fly to Minneapolis instead, rent or borrow a car, drive to Montana, hang out with the friends & fam, drive back to Minnesota, hang out with the friends & fam (the latter being my son & his fiancee) & then fly back. Heck, it's only a 12 or 13 hour drive. One way. Grin.

You will be so proud of me. (I'm talking to you, Cathy.) I just mailed a bunch of stuff at the post office, including 3 short-short stories for a contest. The deadline is not until Monday the 3rd of December & I--she said, patting herself on the shoulder--have mine sent out while it is still November. Yay me. Okay, so it's the very lastest of November, but still.

I have to admit that part of the reason I sent the stories out (ahead of deadline) is that my executive assistant is coming over tomorrow & I didn't want her to think I had accomplished nothing since she was last over...

& now it is time to finish my coffee & walk home & do a couple more things to prepare for her arrival.

But first, your quote from The Art Spirit by Robert Henri.

Today must not be the souvenir of yesterday, and so the struggle is everlasting. Who am I today? What shall I see today? How shall I use what I know, and how shall I avoid being victim of what I know? Life is not repetition.

Blog alternative:
104. Conjure up an imaginary executive assistant--French perhaps, & very fussy--& get ready for his--her?--survey of your domain. (I think this is perhaps a semi-repeat of a previous blog alternative, but really, it is never too often to have the imaginary executive assistant over. Besides, last time I don't think she--he?--was French.)

Peggy Fleming's fashion twin

I'll start you off with a quote from the book I just (re)read. (re meaning, after I'd read it & underlined or otherwise marked many passages, I went back & read the parts I'd marked. Halfway through that process I started writing some of the marked passages on lime-green sticky notes. So then I went back to the beginning & re-reread so I could write some of those down as well. Now I've typed a few of them into my computer. Do you think I liked this book?)

The question of the development of the art spirit in all walks of life interests me. I mean by this, the development of individual judgment and taste, the love of work for the sake of doing things well, tendency toward simplicity and order. If anything can be done to bring the public to a greater consciousness of the relation between art and life, of the part each person plays by exercising and developing his own personal taste and judgment and not depending on "outside authority," it would be well. Robert Henri, The Art Spirit, published in 1923

I'm at a coffee shop, sitting on a couch next to a cardboard box. I would walk to pick up my mail on a parcel day...

This parcel was fortuitous, because I walked out a tiny bit underdressed for the day, considering sundown & all, for it contains a plum organic cotton wrap jacket with a hood. It ties around the waist & has a little flare skirt. (I think I was a figure skater in a past life; I just love their costumes. Or, considering my figure skating ability, perhaps I was a figure skating costume designer. Grin.) So now I will have 2 layers for my return walk. I may be able to get the other items in my canvas bag & be able to go boxless for the mile walk home. That would be nice.

Time to do something other than blogging before I begin the trek back.

Blog alternative:
103. Think about your own individual judgment & taste. Are you expressing it?

Do you think Picasso started with fingerpaints?

9.

9!

You may not be excited, but I am--this post gets me back up to June & July production levels. & I would say there is an excellent chance it will not be the last for lovely November.

It is beginning to feel on the verge of winter-ish here. But, winter-ish here & winter-ish in all the other wheres I have lived is a vastly different thing. Plus, it is still just on the verge. It was cool on Saturday, but this week the highs are supposed to be around 60. It flits in & out. Last year it was 70 on New Years Day.

Went to the co-op for supper & shopping. Almost walked out without the oats, so I actually went through check-out twice. I made oatmeal in my new double boiler & it was so perfect. A friend came over for breakfast a couple days ago & he said it was the best oatmeal he'd had in 10 years! I didn't have enough oats left to make a decent batch--the first purchase was trial-sized. I actually got the little bag of oats a few days before I could make them, because I didn't have a proper pan. Little tiny saucepans & one great soup pot, which still had leftover very favorite beans in it.

So, a double boiler. A wise acquisition. Also recently acquired is a 5-foot folding table, which is currently set up in my studio space. Much nicer for doing projects than the kitchen table, which can now be more easily used for its intended purposes: eating & playing cards. Something I bought a while ago & haven't used yet: fingerpaints. I'll keep you posted.

Blog alternative:
102. Get some fingerpaints. Pretend you're 5--& try to paint as if you don't know you're the one who has to do the clean-up.

Kipper snacks & clementines--& a couple bowls of Crispix

Happy thanks giving.

The above has no errors in date recognition, spacing or capitalization. I know that today is Friday, the 23rd day of November--which is why I am NOT out shopping. I know that there was a big holiday yesterday, that is compound-worded & capitalized. I'm just capitalizing on the everyday opportunity of ecstatic gratitude.

Yesterday I ate

a can of kipper snacks
2 or 3 clementines
cold cereal (Crispix, to be specific)
left-over very favorite beans
chocolat pot du creme

It was all so lovely, & with lovely people. Today I finished off the very favorite beans. I'll roast up a small turkey one of these days--with an eye to soup!--but it's quite nice to be less stuffed than a traditional Thanksgiving turkey.

I established the kipper snacks & clementines tradition last Thanksgiving. The cold cereal was new for this year. It cracks me up to specifically plan on cold cereal--I did get 2 kinds of milk, so I'd have a choice. What a feast!--for one of the biggest eatin' days of the year.

Blog alternative:
101. Pick something you don't typically feel gratitude for--say, having fewer dollars than you'd prefer having--& come up with a list of reasons to feel a bit of gratitude. (Wow, I really know how to want things. I'm good at waiting. When I do acquire dollars I'm more grateful for them. That sort of thing.) (I know, the queen of the silver lining. That's me!)